Title:Nitric Oxide’s Involvement in the Spectrum of Psychotic Disorders
Volume: 23
Issue: 24
Author(s): João Paulo Maia-de-Oliveira, Ludmyla Kandratavicius, Emerson Arcoverde Nunes, João Paulo Machado-de-Sousa, Jaime E. Hallak and Serdar Murat Dursun
Affiliation:
Keywords:
Nitric Oxide, Nitric Oxide System, Psychosis, Psychotic Disorders, Schizophrenia, Schizoaffective
Disorder.
Abstract: Background: Recent findings suggest that dopaminergic abnormalities
found in psychotic disorders may be secondary to nitric oxide dysfunctions.
Nitric oxide seems to influence glutamatergic and dopaminergic
neurotransmission, both of which have been associated with psychosis. Objective:
To search and review published works which examined the influence
of nitric oxide in psychotic disorders subjects. Method: The research was
executed in the on-line collections of Pubmed and ISI Web of Science. The
key aspects utilized were “Psychotic Disorders AND Nitric Oxide”, “Psychosis
AND Nitric Oxide”,“Schizotypal Personality Disorder AND Nitric
Oxide”, “Delusional Disorder AND Nitric Oxide”, “Brief Psychotic Disorder
AND Nitric Oxide”, “Schizophreniform Disorder AND Nitric Oxide”, “Schizoaffective Disorder
AND Nitric Oxide”, and “Schizophrenia AND Nitric Oxide”. Empirical works utilizing
human subjects, published in the last 10 years, in English language were included. Results:
Initially, the search yielded a total of 95 studies. Then, 39 were elected according to
the inclusion requirements. The selected articles were divided into five groups: biochemical
studies (n=15; 38.5%), genetic studies (n=11; 28.2%), postmortem studies (n=6; 15.4%),
clinical trials (n=6; 15.4%), and case reports (n=1; 2.5%). The studies evaluated only schizophrenic
or schizoaffective disorder subjects. The great majority of them found evidence of
nitric oxide dysfunctions in psychosis. Conclusion: The results of the review strengthen the
idea that nitric oxide has a key participation in psychotic disorders and deserves deeper investigation
as a target for future pharmacological intervention.
